Thursday, August 5, 2010

Backhanded Politics

Former corporate oil lobbyist and now (after picking up after The Quitter) current Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has been championing domestic violence and sexual assault issues, which one might think would give him a slight veneer of compassionate conservatism (and it certainly is commendable to bringing this issue to the forefront of political attention).

That said, that is, were it not for him vetoing funding for Denali Kid Care's life insurance program after a crisis of conscience upon discovering a fraction of the money in theory went to provide medically neccessary abortions. While all due respect should be given to calling attention to one of the more dubious honors that Alaska consistently ranks number one in, the mind simply bifurcates over this cognitive dissonance. And no, somehow I don't think I'll wait for him to suddenly become anti-war anytime soon.

All that said, I have had my qualms, some reservations about this panel, as it came awful close to violating one of my own personal taboos - domestic violence is nothing to be made fun of. Don't think that's necessarily the case here, but it is using it to unequivocally make the point of Parnell's moral hypocrisy in this self-righteous posturing. After bouncing it off my ad-hoc "review board" for input as to whether it'd be erroneously interpreted or otherwise seen as over the line, I wound up right back where I usually start: can't really worry overmuch about the potential misfire, as it's not a luxury for an editorial cartoonist to flinch away from any uncomfortable commentary that might come out of the end of the pen. And so it graces the pages of the recent Ester Republic.

Update: underscoring the need for heightened awareness and zero-tolerance on the topic of domestic violence comes not one but two articles in today's appeared about a North Pole man killing his wife with a sledgehammer and a Borough Assemblyman assaulting his wife. Christ Almighty people, WTF. There's linkage to some community resources in this backpost.